Apple Stores wave goodbye to Bose

The long retail relationship has come to an end

Apple has cleared all Bose products from its website and has begun doing the same in retail stores, as the two firms officially part ways.

The news comes following last week's report which said that Apple and Bose were due to end their retail relationship amid a string of issues.

It turns out that information was bang on, with 9to5Mac spotting that all Bose headphones and speakers had completely vanished from the Apple online store yesterday.

It's not just online either, it's been reported that several Apple retail stores have also begun clearing out everything stamped Bose.

In all its quite clear that Apple has indeed dropped Bose, although it was somewhat inevitable following Cupertino's $3bn acquisition of rival headphone-maker Beats back in May.

Apple's big-money purchase evidently caused problems for Bose, as it swiftly sued Beats just days after the buy-out over allegations that Dr. Dre's firm stole its ideas in noise-cancelling tech.

Interestingly after the axing was reported last week, Bose agreed to a dismissalof its lawsuit against Beats, with the parties havingsettledtheir claims.

Another motive may be the situation in the US in which San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been fined $10,000 by the NFL for wearing Beats headphones after the league signed an exclusive sponsorship agreement with Bose.

Ultimately though Apple likely just wanted to get rid of Bose and fully concentrate on its main audio priority which is Beats, rather than dividing the cash flow and selling both brands.